Harry Reid

Reid's opening statement Finally! It's the closest, and most closely watched, race of the midterm elections, and now the long-awaited debate between the two virtually tied Senate candidates. This race has become a proxy for what is happening all over the country -- incumbents facing insurgents. In this case, it's Reid, the leader of Senate Democrats who is seeking his fifth term, versus Republican Angle, a former state legislator and darling of the "tea party" movement. Mitch Fox, host of Nevada Week in Review, is moderating in the studio of Vegas PBS. The candidates are standing at podiums.

Tripping over tongues Re "Reid's indelicate remarks also carry a lot of truth," Column, and "Remarks from past may hurt Reid's future," Jan. 11 I don't know what all the fuss is about -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was just spouting what he believes is the truth. An African American friend, who came from a time and place in which racism was not only practiced but accepted, told me that during the racially tense 1960s, the only white guy he trusted to speak the truth was then-segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

Sen. Harry Reid strolled into Nevada Democratic Party headquarters just before lunch Tuesday to thank volunteers busily phoning voters who had yet to cast their ballots. He handed a small loaf of banana nut bread wrapped in yellow cellophane to Ruth Fuggins, though she wasn't exactly sure why. Fuggins, a 66-year-old retired bank supervisor, has been volunteering for the Democrat's campaign for about a year, but doesn't know Reid personally. Regardless, she was touched by the somewhat awkward gesture: Reid isn't a show boater and Fuggins appreciated that.

Well, now we for sure know why Nevada Sen. Harry "I Did Too Smile Once Back in High School" Reid is calling in the Big Guy for a grandiose fundraiser on Tuesday. A new statewide poll of 625 Nevadans confirms previous research that the four-term Democrat is not well-liked. In fact, he's downright disliked. Fully half the respondents think of him unfavorably. Only 38% think of him positively; 11% didn't care, according to the survey by Mason-Dixon for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Is this the gaffe that will haunt Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? The Nevada Democrat -- who, over the years, has called Alan Greenspan a hack, Washington tourists smelly and President George W. Bush a liar -- was pummeled by Republicans on Sunday for impolitic comments about President Obama's potential for winning the White House. In their book "Game Change," authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann say Reid described then-candidate Obama as a "light-skinned" African American "with no Negro dialect" whom many voters would embrace.

Rahm Emanuel was agitated. With only seven weeks until Christmas, the opportunity to pass healthcare legislation seemed to be fading. The White House chief of staff feared that if the Senate left for the holiday without passing a bill, President Obama's top domestic priority would wither as lawmakers turned to other concerns next year. Democratic senators and administration officials gathered in a conference room outside Majority Leader Harry Reid's Capitol office. Emanuel wanted to know: Was there a chance the chamber could still act in time?

As Nevadans streamed to the polls Tuesday morning, Sen. Harry Reid gave handshakes and hugs to volunteers phone-banking in a Las Vegas campaign office, which was down the street from an apartment complex touting its "Recession Special!" The embattled Democrat was notably relaxed, considering his battle with Republican Sharron Angle has been so filled with mud-slinging that a radio station Tuesday dubbed the pair "Dirty Harry" and "Psycho Sharron. " Dressed in a button-down shirt and khaki pants, Reid joked about being scheduled to serve the volunteers doughnuts, a box of which had been opened in a different room.

After the GOP sweep last week, the only place in town Democrats may still be able to slow or stall President Bush's conservative agenda is in the Senate. And to lead the effort, they're backing a backstage master of parliamentary infighting, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid. "Reid is a kind of Dickensian figure. He haunts the floor. He's like the hovering spirit of the Democrats," said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University who specializes in Congress.

When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came home recently to address the Nevada Legislature, a small but vocal band of Republican protesters gathered at the state Capitol. They waved signs, razzed Democrats and marched outside. But the group fell silent when asked the chances of ousting Reid at the polls next year. "It's going to be tough," demonstrator Carol Howell, 65, finally said. Inside, Reid illustrated one reason why. Speaking to a bipartisan group of lawmakers, he touted hundreds of millions of dollars headed for Nevada under the economic stimulus legislation he helped push through Congress.

Nothing exposes partisan hypocrisy quite like the filibuster, that irksome parliamentary rule that allows a minority of U.S. senators to block legislation, judicial appointments and other business by requiring a 60-vote majority to proceed to a vote. Almost invariably, the party in power considers the filibuster to be an enemy of progress that must be squashed, while the minority fights to preserve it at all cost. That the same players often find themselves arguing from opposite sides depending on whether they control the Senate or are in the minority hardly seems to trouble most lawmakers.